Recently, Genworth Canada released a video entitled, “The Pros and Cons of Buying an Older Home.” Obviously, we normally focus on the new home industry, but we want potential homebuyers to be well informed no matter what kind of home they are considering. So, we think this is a video that you definitely need to watch if you’re looking at purchasing an older home.

According to Genworth Canada’s report, Canada’s condo market won’t be seeing any record breaking years in the near future, but there also won’t be a dramatic downturn, suggesting that the condo market is finally stabilizing after the past few years of heavy growth.

Condo prices will remain virtually flat this year in the country’s three largest cities, with the closely-watched housing sector avoiding “a major downturn,” an outlook released Wednesday by Genworth Canada says.

Genworth MI Canada is the largest private insurer of mortgages. BNN speaks to the Chairman and CEO, Brian Hurley about the heated Canadian housing market and the risks it poses to the mortgage insurer.

“The mortgage rule change that had a significant impact on first-time buyers, from the round of changes implemented last July, was the reduction of the maximum amortization period from 30 to 25 years,” says Debbie McPherson, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Genworth Canada. But while that led many prospective homebuyers to decide to sit on the sidelines a little longer before buying a home, “according to our profiles, about 80 per cent of buyers who qualified for a 30-year amortization would have qualified at 25 years,” says Ms. McPherson. “This means that the vast majority of fist-time buyers can still achieve homeownership – with as little as five per cent down if they qualify for mortgage insurance.”

You’ve pored over online listings, determined your “must have” home features and scoped out the market in your town. But are you really ready to become a homeowner? You are, says Stuart Levings, Genworth Canada’s chief operations officer, if you’re doing these five essential things.